Reflections
by Tale Spinner
Summary: Raynor and Commander ponder their past and the uncertain future they face. Updated content


Disclaimer. StarCraft and the characters appearing in it are owned by Blizzard Entertainment. They are used here for story purposes only. Nothing more.

Commander's diary

I was sitting in my room, drinking tea. I was trying to sort out the recent course of events. Past days have been nerve–wracking. Jim Raynor, my friend and ally, told me to stay behind and gather resources while he went with his Protoss friend Fenix to meet Sarah Kerrigan, our former ally and comrade in arms, now the self-styled Queen of Blades. Jim had said that he didn't want to risk me being captured or killed by Kerrigan in case something went wrong. I would have to bail him out if she would turn the tables on him. That's why I had to fill our storages in case I had to launch a full scale attack. Besides, our storage of minerals and Vespene gas were nearly depleted anyway. Majority of our suppplies got used on the attack against the Zerg Overmind on Aiur. Kerrigan hadn't mentioned me at all, either not needing my presence or ignoring me entirely. Deliberate or just plain ignorance? Hard to say.

The twin planet of Braxis nearby was where we conducted the mining, was free of anything hostile (excluding the sudden Zerg arrivals), apparently due to its climate it had never drawn any settlers/miners before. The almost constant snow storms and blizzards raging on the surface doesn't invite anyone execpt the most foolhardy to mine there, let alone reside. Also, it's much colder than Braxis. So it was the perfect mining site for a band of so-called outlaws with the name Raynor's Raiders. Apparently it didn't deter the Zerg either. Fortunately we didn't attract the attention of any UED patrols while mining. I bet they were busy elsewhere.

Resource gathering was completed few days ago. It took slightly longer due to the unexpected arrival of the Zerg but it was handled without any serious setbacks. I wonder how they happened to come there in the first place? If they'd wanted to settle and mine there, they would have done it long ago. I have a feeling they were there to wipe us out, not to do any mining. If it had succeeded, Jim would be under Kerrigan's mercy without any hope for rescue. I just hope Jim hasn't been caught or killed. There's been no word from him.

I decided to announce to the crew that if by the day's end Raynor hadn't made any contact, we'd go looking for him. Best place to start would be Korhal. Advisor had detected lot of activity in that region in the recent hours. Before I managed to do anything, Com–Link came on suddenly.

"Hey man. Good see you're still in one piece." Raynor said.

"Jim, where the hell have you been? We were almost prepared to come looking for you." I replied.

"I'll tell you all about it later. Right now I want to clean myself up and rest for a while. Dock in and come to my quarters in about an hour." Raynor replied.

"Very well." I said.

Then he shut off the Com–Link. He seemed more worried than usual, something serious must have happened. I'd hear about it later, right now I wanted to dock, unload and take small nap myself. This waiting had been a tiring process.

The small nap became a full hour's sleep. I was aroused from my sleep by the door alarm. I struggled to get up and with great effort moved myself to the door. I pressed the door open and found Raynor standing on the other side.

"Sleep caught you too huh, Commander? Raynor asked.

"Yeah," I replied wearily and yawned.

"Same here. I just got up minute ago and decided to walk around the ship a little to wake myself. An hour had already passed so I decided to come here instead of going back to my room and drag you there. If you're too tired, I can come back later." Raynor said.

"No, that's all right. I feel refreshed enough. Come on in." I replied.

Raynor entered and sat down the chair next to the table. I staggered to the refreshment unit.

"Do you want anything Jim, coffee, tea, water or whiskey?"

"Whiskey please." Raynor replied.

I didn't fancy anything warm right now so I took some water.

"Here you go." I said as I passed the glass to him and sat down next to him.

"Thanks man. Where did you get this stuff? Last time I saw or tasted anything which remotely resembles whiskey was back in Mar Sara in the Marshal's office." Raynor asked.

"I found a small supply of it back in Mar Sara in the Magistrate's office. I took it with me when we fled from there." I replied.

"Figures, too bad I couldn't grab my own supply of it. But I was inside a Confederate prison ship so it was impossible." Raynor said.

"I've been saving it for some special occasion. Originally I would've shared it with all of us if the battle against the Confederacy had ended in a more positive way. As we know, it didn't. Next chance was when the Overmind was destroyed but unfortunately there wasn't any good time for it afterwards. This situation seems as good as any, now that you're back." I said and sipped the water.

"When you hear what I have to say, you'll want to drink for a different reason than celebration." Raynor replied glumly.

I didn't like his tone so I prepared for the worst.

"Fire away." I replied.

Raynor told me whole story ever since we splitted ways back in Aiur. About an hour and few shots of whiskey later, he finished the story.

"… and that's it." Raynor finished and emptied his glass, then held a short pause before continuing. "After she'd gotten what she wanted, she proceeded to eliminate us all. Aside me, Arcturus was the only survivor, I have a feeling Sarah wants to take care of him personally in the future. I believe strongly she hasn't forgiven Mengsk for abandoning her in Tarsonis. I haven't either and never will. It was fortunate for me I wasn't in the Protoss base then, we had a small camp behind the Protoss base where I was. I didn't dare to build a solid base in case we had to leave in a hurry. It turned out to be a wise decision. " Raynor finished.

"Glad you made it out alive, I'm sorry about Fenix." I replied.

"Thanks Commander. I appreciate it."

"In a way, I'm sorry about Kerrigan too. She meant a lot to you."

There was a moment of silence before Jim answered.

"Yes, she meant a lot to me once. In a small way, she still does. But what she did to us in Korhal made me drop all pretense on her part. Next time we meet, I'll kill her. Not just for us and our friends sake but for hers as well." Raynor said sternly.

"And I shall help you to achieve that. She was our comrade in arms once. I owe her at least that much. I couldn't save her in Tarsonis. But I'll do my best to help you save her from herself," I replied.

"Thanks again, Commander. I know I can count on your help. We've sticked together all the way from Mar Sara."

We saluted each other with our drinks and then remained silent for a while.

After all we had talked sinked in, I made a realisation.

"You're right Jim. I need something stronger than this," I said while looking my nearly empty glass of water. I drank the remaining water and proceeded to fill the glass. Whiskey it is then. I filled it whole. I was lost in thought so I didn't notice I emptied the whole glass with one stroke. Aftershock came a moment later and I had to sit down immediately if I didn't want to find myself from the floor.

"Hey, you okay man?"

"Yeah, just drank too hastily. Not good. I haven't drinked anything strong since the day I was appointed as a Magistrate." I replied.

"What did you do before being appointed?"

"Practically nothing. After I completed my education course, I waited like all others did, an opportunity to get a position to match one's training and skills. Not long after my graduation, Confederacy announced that I'd gained a position of a Colonial Magistrate in the colony of Mar Sara. Somehow my name was picked from the archives. There was apparently something in my records which interested the Confederates because I was appointed on the spot and scheduled to depart to Mar Sara the next morning. So I held myself a party that evening. One reason was for a job worthy of my talents and a chance to get away from the main bustle of the Confederacy. Little did I know what I got thrown into."

"Considering what happened back in Mar Sara, they might have sended you there because they considered you expendable or a potential threat to their plans." Raynor said.

"Maybe. I harbored similar thoughts soon after our escape from there but hadn't time to dwell on it then. Anyway, it doesn't surprise me at all, considering what the Confederacy tried to use the Zerg for." I replied.

"I agree with you, Commander. Who could've thought that incident in Mar Sara led to the fall of the Confederacy and us becoming outlaws, as far as Arcturus is concerned. If he hadn't betrayed Kerrigan, we'd probably be serving the Emperor Mengsk right now."

"You can say that again. It was really irritating when we saw the news broadcast of Mengsk's coronation. He practically declared war to the entire Koprulu sector with his proclamation." I said.

"Whole thing became a role reversal. We turned into a rebels fighting against the Dominion and Arcturus became a corrupted replacement of the corrupted Confederation. I dubbed us "Raynor's Raiders" because it would describe us well in the future, making raids against the Dominion or anything else." Raynor said.

"It was a good name choice in every way. My tenure as Magistrate certainly didn't last long. Only in a few days it ended and I became a Commander in the ranks of the Sons of Korhal. Your job as a Marshall ended as well then and was freed to join us."

"Yeah, although it was dull most of the time because things mostly ran by themselves in Mar Sara. I'd still take that job over the current occupation anytime." Raynor said.

"I believe that Magistrate's work would've been pretty much the same, maybe even duller under normal circumstances. Still, it now appeals to me much more than commanding the people with us to fight against half the sector." I replied.

"Likewise, Commander. But currently we have no choice in the matter."

"Yeah, not a one bit." I said.

Then Raynor got up and went to fill his glass. I asked him to fill mine as well. Then we both sat in silence for a while and drinked. Few minutes later, Raynor continued.

"We certainly were adrift for a while after Tarsonis. We were on the run from all Dominion forces. But when I suddenly had that strange dream about Kerrigan, I knew that had to be investigated."

"I remember that." I said, embarassed. I had momentarily doubted Jim's mental state. But then I'd remembered that Kerrigan was a Ghost, they had telepathic powers. She had many times played that on me, saying she could read my mind. It was obvious she could somehow send a message for potential rescuers, telling she's still alive. But her message reaching us so far in space was amazing. Either she'd been that capable all the time or she'd aquired more power someway. "Considering it sounded weird, your reasoning had never failed before so I followed along."

"Well, the way I came to tell you about it probably gave that impression, but suddenly experiencing a sending like that spooks anyone." Raynor replied.

"You're right. Having not experienced that dream myself, I shouldn't have questioned your take on it." I answered.

"Anyway," Raynor continued. "What I faced on Char was much worse than I'd thought. What she'd become was much worse than expecting to see her dead. That she allowed me to live was the only testament of her former self still there. She didn't spare any others down there with me though. I found myself nodding to her statement just to get out of there as fast as possible."

"I monitored the whole thing as it happened. If she'd killed you then, I'd probably gone down there with everything we had then and razed them to ashes. Even if it would've killed me in the process." I said.

"But fortunately it didn't get that far. The whole crew was devastated after I relayed the news." Raynor said.

"They were indeed. We were back to starting point then. All the avenues seemed closed to us. There was no immediate hope of battling against the Dominion, and we had to refrain from killing the Zerg if we wished to remain beneath their notice. Because there wasn't an immediate threat from the Zerg, we all agreed to your decision to remain near Char. Observing them and waiting if they'd leave and where they would go or something." I said.

"Yeah, I couldn't come up with anything better then. Only when we saw that small Protoss squad flee from the Char with a small swarm behind, things took another turn. As we saw them landing to that platform orbiting Char, I got interested about them, I wanted to know what they were doing there?" Raynor said.

"I didn't like your decision to go seeking the Protoss alone Jim. Even well equipped, you wouldn't have stood a chance against the Zerg if you'd ran into small pack of them." I said.

"I appreciated your concern, Commander, but I went alone with my Vulture because it was the best way not to attract their attention to me, at least not much. Besider, my Vulture is rigged, I could've outrun them if it had become a chase. But I got into the Protoss base without any incident. There I met with the Tassadar and as you remember, we got cut off. My trip to the base hadn't drawn any attention to me but it had drawn enough of it in my wake because the Zerg patrols seeking the Protoss managed to block the area I'd just passed. I contacted you not to break through because that would've drawn them all in a massive surge. So there was no other chance but to wait for a better opportunity."

"That waiting was torture. I spended a long time finding some weakness about their defenses, there had to be one, but I found nothing which would enable you to get out fast enough before the Zerg would detect and overwhelm you. Another thing which was against us was our resource situation which had depleted severely on Char, since I couldn't aquire a new batch, I had to stay still."

"There was no need to worry, Commander, the time I spended in the Protoss camp was enlightening. I got to know Tassadar very well and he told me all what had happened to him on Char. Things about Kerrigan weren't nice to hear, she seemed to have gone further and further from the Sarah Kerrigan I knew, and she was as I know now."

"Surely the forces of Protoss would've been adequate enough to get away from there, we could've joined forces in a proper spot to ensure our escape." I said.

"In that situation they weren't Commander. They'd just barely evaded the Zerg seeking them and they didn't dare to activate base because its noise and energies would've drawn the Zerg in like wildfire. But as you know, the Protoss Executor's arrival gave us the chance to escape."

"Indeed, once you got back Jim, you laid it all down in a short form because there wasn't enough time to it then. We all relished the chance to join the Protoss and help them in their battle against the Zerg. At least we got something to do then."

"Yeah we did. Having Protoss on our side made the odds against the Zerg much better."

Then I nodded and took a drink, but the glass was empty. I had stand up and go fill it. I felt slightly dizzy, whiskey was getting to me. Jim asked to fill his as well. There wasnt't much of it left in the canister anymore, just enough to fill half a glass for both of us.

"It's all here Jim," I said. "No more whiskey after this."

Jim stared blankly for a moment and then said. "Well, nothing's forever man."

After a moment of mulling our thoughts, I decided to continue with our musings.

"The brief moment I managed to talk pleasantries with the Protoss Executor before we started the attack against the Overmind, was delighting. On certain aspects, mostly conserning the combat and leading the troops, we thought alike. That's why I think our joint attack made the Overmind's destruction possible. Everything was done with lethal precision."

"Yeah, he's one of a kind amongst the Protoss. If majority of them would be like him, battles against the Zerg would've gone smoother than they did." Raynor said.

"He's certainly able. I hope we can work with him again in the future." I said.

"So do I. Of course the future has to come to us before that's possible.

"Speaking of which Jim, how's Zeratul? I understood you two got along nicely. Where's he now?"

"I don't know, last I heard from him was when he contacted me as I was coming here. We briefly informed each other of recent events around us. Kerrigan's treachery had striked them as well. What seemed most strange that Zeratul seemed more brooding than usual. When I asked him about it, he claimed it on Kerrigan. But I could feel that it alone wouldn't make him act like all hope is lost. Before we broke the connection, he said to me. "Prepare for the worst, Commander Raynor." Then he shut off the connection."

"What could that mean? What I've been doing for the past week is nothing but preparing for something like that." I said.

"I wish I knew, Commander. To me it sounded like it's not over yet, something much worse might or will happen. But when, I don't know either. Whatever it is, if it makes even Zeratul worried, then it makes me too."

"Before that happens, let's just prepare for it the best we can and judge it then when it happens." I said.

"Speaking of preparing, how did your resource gathering went Commander? Did you manage to fill our reserves? As I came in, I noticed most of the equipment had suffered some damage."

"Althought the weather in the twin planet of Braxis slowed the process, it didn't damage anything badly Jim. Most of the damages came from the sudden Zerg attack."

"What? As we'd scanned the planet earlier there weren't any signs of the Zerg. How's that possible, Commander?"

"Almost the entirety of our time there things went well. The Zerg appeared during the final few days when the mineral cache we'd found was almost empty. Fortunately the weather hampered their movements as well."

"No one but me knew you were there. I trust nothing saw or detected your arrival there?" Raynor said.

"I operated with utmost discreet. The weather for the most part helped to hide us from possible scannings."

"Then how…" Jim finished in mid sentence. He thinked it for a moment, then spoke. "Of course. I visited the Braxis with Kerrigan and others not long ago. We went to destroy the psychic beacon on the planet operated by UED. Although we were on the orbit of Braxis, even she could't have detected your presense there. Only way I can think of is she readed my mind at some point. She knew I wouldn't reveal your location willingly so she must've managed to grap the knowledge from my mind when I wasn't careful. If that's true, she obviously wanted to eliminate you so couldn't threaten her plans if she'd managed to remove me."

"It's a real pleasure to know she thinks I'm dangerous enough to be on her termination list. Well, she's now on mine too. Her attempt on me made it personal." I said, barely holding my temper because of this revelation."

"Together we shall bring her down, Commander. I promise that."

"Together." I said, clicking our glasses together and then emptying them.

Just after that the Advisor came on–line. Great timing I must say.

"Yes Advisor. What is it?"

"Good, you are both together. You need to hear this. There has been a massive attack against the Kerrigan's platform orbiting Char. The attack force consisted of Arcturus Mengsk's fleet which he himself led. Second was a Protoss fleet led by a Protoss called Artanis. Finally, the remainder of the UED fleet attacked too. They were all almost completely destroyed and driven back. Just few minutes ago I intercepted a message saying a huge Zerg swarm was detected going after the UED fleet, the whole fleet was destroyed down to the last ship. Nothing hampered the remainder of the fleets of Mengks and the Protoss as they fled from the area."

"Thank's for the news, Advisor. You're very vigilant. Keep listening the transmissions if anything else occurs." I said.

"I will, Commander." She said and finished the contact.

"Can things go any worse from this, Commander? Kerrigan's become more dangerous and powerful than I'd ever believed if she can hold alone against three separate parties. Anything lesser would be dust under such an attack. Althought it's devastating, I don't believe it's the great threat Zeratul spoke about, it's something else. Oh well, at least Arcturus didn't get her, considering he's responsible for her current condition, he should've been killed in the attempt. Only good thing about the whole thing is that UED got whacked. I believe they won't be bothering any of us for a long time."

"At this situation we can't even consider attacking her, Jim. No matter how well equipped we'd be. She's too powerful. If possible, it must be a time and place of our choosing, not hers. As we just heard, it's plain suicide to make the battle on her own ground. We must too, like others, to bide our time and wait for a better opportunity." I said.

"Yeah man, you're right. At this moment we'd get ourselves needlessly killed. Our only course is to head away from this area. Where to go and what to do I can't say. We could try to search places for anything useful to us, with luck we might even stumble on this greater threat unless it finds us first." Raynor said.

"Which general direction should we head first? It's good to know at least where to start, if not the ending." I asked.

"That way, Commander." Raynor said and pointed the least explored part of the sector on the map screen. I relayed the instructions to the pilot.

"I wonder what we'll be facing on our journeys. What will the future hold for us? To the entire Koprulu Sector? I said.

"I wish I knew man." Jim said. "But if I take all the recent events into account, it won't be anything positive."

After mulling that thought for a while, Commander spoke.

"By the way, Jim. All this time we've been together, you've never asked me of my real name."

Jim was momentarily taken aback.

"You're right, Commander. All that has happened ever since we met, there hasn't been time for proper introductions. It was all formal back in Mar Sara and the moment we joined Sons of Korhal, so many new persons appeared that I didn't bother to concentrate on getting personal. It was clearer to accept everyone as they'd been introduced at that point. I took it in automatically when Arcturus named you Commander, it kinda fitted with your Magistrate title."

"I see your point, Jim. But now that we finally have a decent breather, we could finally do proper introductions if you want."

"Fine by me. Actually it would be smoother to call you by a more personal name."

"All right. My name is Horner, Matt Horner."

"Matt, nice name. It will take a while getting used to call you like that."

"Thanks, Jim. And it will also take getting used to be called by my name, instead of my title."

"Yea, one change after another. You should also introduce yourself to the rest of the crew as well."

"I will, as soon as I've cleaned and refreshed."

"I'm glad we met, Co... I mean Matt." Jim smiled momentarily for his slip. "I'm sure together we can overcome whatever fate will throw against us."

"So do I Jim, so do I."

Then Jim Raynor and Matt Horner shook hands, as a sign of their friendship.

The Battlecruiser Hyperion of the Raynor's Raiders headed towards the stars, it's occupants unaware of the dark threat which would in time touch everyone and everything living in the Koprulu Sector.


End file.
